Back to the Future

For our fifth week, the students of Professor Jim Groom’s Computer Science 104, also known as “The Internet Course,” took a look into the future by viewing the past. Each student took clips from movies, and used them to illustrate a “future” technology of their choosing.

Big Data
By Jessi Clark

Below you will find a video that examines how 5 films that give possible future uses of big data. Big data is a term that refers to sets of data that are too large and complex to process using tools and traditional data processing used today. Big data is being accumulated now and the technology is being developed to be able to process it. Big data consists of purchases we make, people we interact with and how, where we go and the list goes on. The question for the future is how will this data be used?

Theses 5 films offer 5 different possibilities for the future of big data. 1984 presents a government that watches everyone to establish control over society. Eagle Eye presents the United States government who has created a computer program that accumulates data and manipulates it to help the United States thrive. 2001: A Space Odyssey includes a program called HAL 9000 that ends up being able to make choices for itself based on the data it has accumulated. Minority Report shows the possibilities for marketing while The 5th Element touches on education. By looking back at films that have included issues that involve big data we can get a glimpse of what the future may be like when the technology has been developed to process the data and possibly incorporate it into our daily lives. I don’t think that day is too far away from us.

Wearable Technology
By William Ball Jr.

Wearable technology is something that has a lot of potential for human usage. Wearable technology is already present in much of the current and even dated media, which is indicative of its potential for use. Some examples of wearable technology are jetpacks, glasses, and watches. This video provides a visual representation of wearable technology. The clips I chose all show examples of wearable technology. My favorite clip would have to be the fake Nazi propaganda video. The video is different due to the fact that it shows the United States being invaded by flying Nazis, which is intense to say the least.

By Paul Bond
In my video, I decided to look at the way people connect to computers, and thus the internet, and think about where that might be going. We’ve gone from mouse/keyboard to touchscreen to voice, getting a little more intuitive and a little more personal each step of the way. Now there are technologies that allow for a more direct brain-computer connection, so cyberspace can move beyond everted to internalized.

The Internet of Things
By Kimberlee Vizzi

The internet of things is often thought about as a future concept, however, its more of a now concept. Inventions of smart objects are slowly increasing and eventually will become the internet of things.The internet of things refers to objects for example household objects like smart appliances or it can be city wide objects like streets, lights and buildings etc. They are all connected by the internet which means they are all quote smart, constantly gaining information and distributing information and eventually becoming eventually in the future a smart atmosphere with all of this data about everyone single person. It’s pretty incredible to think about all of this information you could get about a single person just by accessing this data. You could literally know what anyone at any time have for breakfast. Its also a scary thing to think about in a couple of ways. One question I ask is, what if someone accesses all of this data and for bad purposes? Will the government be able to access all of this information? Would I be okay with that? Another question that I bring up in my video is what if my technology gets too smart? Would technology eventually decrease a need for human social interaction? A worst case scenario to think about is what if this technology tries to fight back? These are some questions to think about as we approach this very near future. The internet of things is here, now we just have to wait for it to be everywhere.

Virtual Reality
By James Dawson

So we all know that virtual reality has long been a technology associated with the future. Examples of it have been popping up movies, television shows, and more for years. We’ve even had attempts at making virtual reality, reality, with tech like the Virtual Boy, or now the Oculus Rift. In this video I’ll show you a few examples of how virtual reality has been depicted in film, and how it may relate to our reality. The TV series and movies included in this video are as follows: Space Adventure Cobra, Megazone 23, The Matrix, Summer Wars, and Avatar.

Artificial Intelligence
By Steven Hartzell

What is AI? Well, it stands for artificial intelligence, but what does it really represent? For some, it represents hope. Could AI provide better challenges, manual labor, or even friendship? For others, it represents fear. Will AI surpass us, challenge us, or even enslave us? Many different writers have come up with their own interpretations of AI and answers to these questions. Let’s look at a few of them.

Cyborgs
By Alex Marshall

In modern movies cyborgs are often presented as this fusing of human and machine, often to make the human more powerful through technology. When you think about it, our culture today is obsessed about self improvement. Cyborgs in my opinion is something that will definitely have a big impact on the world. The medical field, our military, and eventually into everybody’s homes. We are already obsessed and unable to live without the internet. People are constantly being connected to the web, always communicating, and sharing lives with other. Its obvious that there is already a movement to mend the human with the internet, the question is where is it going to be in lets say 30 years from now? I think the reason Hollywood has such a love for cyborgs is that they really see a possible future of us living with cyborgs, if not becoming one. Definitely an interesting though when you think about how far we have come in the past 10 years, and the massive impact the internet has had on our future.

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About this Course

This is the homepage for Computer Science 104 (also known as "The Internet Course") taught by Jim Groom and Paul Bond at the University of Mary Washington. For more information take a look at the current syllabus or check out the about page.